Sviatoslav I of Kiev

Sviatoslav I of Kiev (943-26 March 972) was Grand Prince of the Kievan Rus from 945 to 972, succeeding Igor and preceding Yaropolk I.

Biography
Sviatoslav was born in 943, the son of Prince Igor of Kiev and Saint Olga of Kiev. His father died when he was two years old, and he became the Grand Prince of Kievan Rus from Novgorod, with his mother serving as his regent. He and his druzhina company engaged in perpetual warfare against the neighboring states, and, while his mother converted to Orthodox Christianity, he remained a lifelong pagan, as he feared that his warriors would lose respect for him if he converted. In 965, he destroyed the Khazar city of Sarkel and then destroyed their capital of Atil in 969, destroying their khaganate. Meanwhile, he went to war with Boris II of Bulgaria, whose forces besieged Kiev in 968. Sviatoslav defeated the Bulgars and the Pechenegs, and, in 969, Sviatoslav devastated Thrace and captured the Bulgarian city of Philippopolis, slaughtering its inhabitants. He then challenged the authority of the new Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes by besieging Adrianople in 970. Tzimiskes' general Bardas Skleros defeated the Rus, Pechenegs, Magyars, and Bulgarians at Arcadiopolis, and he also recaptured Marcianopolis from the Kievans. When the Byzantines besieged Dorostolon, Sviatoslav was forced to come to terms with the Byzantine emperor, although he had severely weakened the Bulgarians. Tzimiskes then fomented strife between the Kievans and Pechenegs by having the Pecheneg khan Kurya ambush and slay Sviatoslav near Khortitsa in 972.